Emotions have been a hot topic for me of late. It seems that a lot of people around me, including myself, are dealing with the continued suppression of our tears, angry outbursts, and possibly even excessive happiness. It got me thinking that this country has done it's citizens a great disservice.
You may be wondering what I mean? Well, it is this simple - who has ever heard their parents utter (or in most cases yell) the phrase 'what are you blubbering about', or 'Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about', or even when you were making too much noise playing, 'Keep the noise down'? It seems that every time a child in this country, probably since the arrival of the First Fleet, has been conditioned to suppress their feelings! Perhaps it has something to do with the stereotypical stoicism of the English, or the firmness of the men and their inability to cope with excessive noise (for whatever valid or invalid reason), or the mother's wish for a moment's peace and quiet, or more likely the parent's wish to not have unnecessary attention drawn to them with overly loud children. It could be a multitude of things!
Either way, the result appears to be a generation of emotionally repressed individuals who find other ways to release their emotions - angry bar fights, nervous breakdowns, anxiety disorders, higher than average divorce rates, increased suicide rates, higher instances of bipolar, ADD, ODD and CD in young people etc etc etc... I am not in anyway saying that things like bipolar can be prevented or cured through adequate expression of one's feelings - I am not a doctor or any kind of health care professional - it just seems that as the stresses of living in the later 20th and early 21st century get higher, so too do instances of these events... I know from personal experience what continued suppression of feelings can do to a person!
Perhaps it is time to stop telling people to be quiet, allow them time to cry, yell and scream (in a controlled environment so they do not do themselves any harm) and let our children know it is OK to feel what they are feeling and see what the next 200 years brings??
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